Elements of Temperament
Drives, Thresholds and Nerves

Part Two: Drives

By Joy Tiz, MS, JD

An obedience instructor who was getting interested in working dogs went to evaluate two puppies from nice working lines. After looking at the male and female pups, each separately, she declared the female the better Schutzhund prospect because she had the right drive. I went out and saw the same two pups, and came away with the opposite opinion. The little female was a dear pup, unusually attentive to the human but only moderately interested in chasing a ball. She was somewhat more interested in grabbing a rag. The male, on the other hand, was a maniac for the ball or anything else that moved. When the ball rolled out of sight, he hunted for it relentlessly. He was everywhere, into everything. The obedience instructor had mistaken the female pup’s energy and attentiveness for working drives. The male, however showed plenty of prey drive as well as confidence in new situations. He would be worth a second look as a possible Schutzhund prospect.

A local breeder proclaimed proudly that she just had to take back one of her male pups, because he “has too much drive!” What did she mean by that? The pup had been destructive in the house. Her interpretation of the pup’s shredding of the owners’ belongings was that it was a sign he had excellent drive.

A vet described her male GSD as being “very drivey”. Did that mean he loves to chase a ball? Well, no. Not really. She meant that he has a great deal of energy.

Once again, we have to wonder if any of us are actually talking about the same thing. Among working dog people, you will hear a lot of talk about drives. But, what are they? What do they look like? Too often, the term is applied to describe dogs who have high activity levels, but the activity is scattered and unfocused. When we’re looking for working dogs, we’re looking for high energy, of course, but also drives that can be channeled and focused.

A drive is an internal mechanism that pushes the dog into taking action. All dogs have certain basic drives. The only real difference among dogs is a matter of degree. Think of each drive being on a continuum.

As a Real GSD enthusiast, the drives you will be primarily concerned with are: rank, prey, defense and pack. Keep in mind that each drive is tied to the survival of the animal. For example, to survive in the wild, a dog must have the willingness and ability to capture and kill prey. Drives are badly misunderstood, too often with tragic results.

Rank Drive

This one should be familiar, it’s the dominance vs submissive question. Rank drive has to do with the dog’s desire to improve his social standing. A dog who is high in rank drive will attempt to grab the highest position in the hierarchy. Again, you will see wide variation among dogs. Some dogs will fight to the death to assume the Alpha position as to the other dogs in the household, but be completely respectful of humans and accept human leadership without a fuss.

Some dogs will, however attempt to dominate humans. But, remember it’s always a matter of degree. There is a wide range here, from a mildly rank driven dog who has a cocky attitude to a dog who won’t hesitate to come up leash and nail his handler. High rank drive dogs can actually be fun to train because they are so self confident. But, in its extreme form, it’s not a good trait for novice handlers to seek out. When trained motivationally, sane high rank drive dogs can be real stars in many types of work. They’re smart and they like showing off. Use that. If you’re struggling to live happily with a dominant pet dog, you’ll find lots of help in my book, I Love My Dog, But . . . (1999 Avon Books).

Another term you’ll hear bandied about and often misused is hardness. Breeders will advertise pups from parents with “super hardness”. The correct definition for the term hardness is resilience. A hard dog is one who doesn’t fall apart under stress. Extreme handler hardness, while revered by many in the working dog community makes for a difficult dog to handle safely. An overly soft dog is one who will wilt at the slightest correction. Novices are generally better off with a dog who has some degree of hardness and won’t be adversely affected by a poorly timed or overly harsh correction. A soft dog will show avoidance behavior in response to stress. Or, to confuse you, there are dogs who will display defensive aggression in response to an over-correction.

Defense Drive

By far, this drive causes more confusion than any other. Defense drive refers to the dog’s instinct to defend himself. It is part of the self preservation instinct. Thus, a complete absence of any defense drive in the GSD would be faulty temperament. Though we would expect to see very little defense drive in a Lab. That breed isn’t supposed to have a great deal of suspicion toward humans. Whether this drive is problematic depends both on the strength of the drive and the threshold at which the drive kicks in. We will talk in depth about thresholds in the next section.

When a dog is in defense drive, he is displaying aggressive behaviors. Barking, lunging, snapping, snarling and growling are part of the constellation. The dog’s hackles may be up. Understand that the dog feels that he must fight for his life. A dog in defense drive is under extreme stress. He may be feeling extremely ambivalent, and you’ll see ears swiveling back and forth, the dog may bark and back up, then move forward again. This is why good trainers never, ever introduce elements of defense into protection training until the dog has sufficient emotional maturity and self confidence to be able to manage his stress. Defensive behavior is not fun for the dog. Unfortunately, it seems to be really fun for far too many owners.

It’s easy to understand why so many people mistake a defensive display with genuine protection. Remember, the dog who is in defense feels threatened. All of the lunging, snarling and other displays have one common goal: to drive the threat back. That’s why a defensive display has such forwardness to it, the dog wants to push the threat away. The best analogy I’ve heard so far was to compare the dog in defense drive to a solitary wolf being confronted by a grizzly bear (I believe this analogy was written by Donn Yarnell). The lone wolf knows he cannot win this fight and feels that he is not free to flee. So, he puts on a big show, hoping to drive the bear off.

In fact, if the dog felt that flight was an option, he absolutely would flee. It’s very important that owners of defensive dogs understand this. Too often, people incorrectly assume that the dog won’t bite unless he is cornered. That’s not true. All that matters is the dog’s perception of the situation. If he feels that he cannot escape because he is on lead or even because he could lose face, the dog could very well bite.

Is there anything positive about defense drive? Yes!! It’s essential for a good protection dog. Why? Because defense drive is always accessible. It’s not subject to exhaustion or boredom. Defense is what puts the seriousness into protection work. Again, it’s all a matter of degree and threshold.

Assuming the dog has good, strong nerves and a reasonably high threshold, a dog with strong defense drive can be a good working dog.

Keep in mind the next time someone tells you that his growling, lunging dog is “protective”, that protection, by its very definition requires the presence of a legitimate, identifiable threat. If the dog is carrying on defensively toward a non threatening person or object, that’s not protection, that’s a spook dog.

Prey Drive

This is another misunderstood, yet essential drive. A GSD with low prey drive is a crime against nature.

Prey drive refers to the dog’s natural desire to chase, capture and kill prey. It is completely natural and forms the foundation for a wide variety of dog jobs, including Schutzhund, police K9, SAR, and many others.

Tragically, innumerable dogs are euthanized every year because no one around understood the nature of prey drive. Humans often insist that if the dog killed a cat or rabbit, he will move on to bigger prey and start killing toddlers next, which is of course, nuts. High prey drive dogs will not attack and kill humans unless there is some other pathological dynamic at work or the dog lacks sound discrimination abilities. That is, the dog must be able to tell the difference between a gopher and a child. Most dogs can do this quite easily, if given proper socialization in puppy hood. A dog will not consider as a prey object any living creature to which he is exposed in early puppy hood, ideally around the age of 3-5 weeks. This is why the job of the breeder is so important! Breeders absolutely must have their pups exposed to babies and small children. An under socialized, high prey drive dog can easily mistake a crying baby for wounded prey. If you have a small animal killing dog, you may wish to read Sadie’s story in I Love My Dog, But . . .

What’s so great about prey drive, other than its utility is that it is such great fun for a dog. Prey and play are very closely related. In other words, when a dog is in prey drive, he’s having a pretty good time. A high prey dog will chase balls forever and love it. When you throw a ball, does your dog tear after it with great enthusiasm? Good! If it rolls out of sight, does he continue to hunt for it, relentlessly or does he give up and walk away? Those dogs who will continue to hunt for their beloved tennis balls are showing hunting instincts, which can often be channeled into work, such as SAR.

Prey drive is also the foundation for good protection training. Remember, unlike defense, prey work is fun. Prey driven dogs are not growling and snarling. They may bark, but you’ll hear a higher pitched, playful kind of bark. What you’re hearing is actually a prey flushing bark. The dog is trying to stimulate the prey to get moving so he can chase it. Look at the dog’s body language. A dog ready to bite the sleeve in prey mode is bouncy, not stressed. Their ears are up, tails are up, they’re excited about the game. In Schutzhund, the bite sleeve ultimately becomes the prized prey object. It’s not until the dog is full of confidence and mentally mature that the helper will begin to behave in a threatening manner toward the dog, which is when defense is introduced. Prey drive remains important, however because it provides a mechanism for relieving the stress of defensive work. If the dog is getting too stressed, the helper can switch gears and give the dog some fun “prey bites” by changing his body language and movements.

Prey drive, as wonderful and useful as it is, however will not, in and of itself make a true protection dog. A dog working only in prey lacks seriousness. They also focus on equipment, rather than on the agitator. The other problem with prey is that it is subject to exhaustion and boredom. The dog may simply quit working if he’s being worked exclusively in prey. Defense drive, however is always accessible. No dog is too tired to defend himself. It’s defense that adds the serious edge to the protection work.

There are many, many types of work in which prey is the foundation. If the dog has good prey, you’ve got a built in means of motivating and rewarding him in obedience and other activities. Just remember that prey drive is a comfortable place for the dog to be. And, if you encounter a trainer who wants to start a young or green dog in defense drive, rather than prey, run!!!

Pack Drive

We know that dogs are highly social animals, just like their wolf ancestors. They naturally want to be part of a group or pack. As with all drives, dogs vary greatly as to degree of pack drive. A dog who is independent and aloof even with his own family would be considered to be low in pack drive. A more social dog who can’t stand to be left out of anything the humans are doing would be higher in pack drive.

Extremes on either end do not make good working prospects. A dog with very low pack drive isn’t going to bond well with his human partner and will be more difficult to motivate in training. Some breeds are supposed to be independent and aloof. Most GSDs bond very deeply to their handlers.

At the other extreme would be the dog who manifests separation anxiety. This is a dog who, literally cannot be left alone. The poor dog will fall apart and show vocalizations and destructive behavior if the owner goes into another room and closes the door. Dogs with this condition are not good prospects for any type of work. True separation anxiety needs to be treated medically.

To some extent, degree of pack drive is a personal preference. Do you like a dog who is especially attentive to you or one who is able to amuse himself on his own? Until you get to the outer extreme, the higher pack drive dog is easier to train in obedience than the more aloof dog. Too much pack drive can be a handicap in other types of work, however. Consider the dog sent to do an area search. This dog must be willing to leave his handler, and stay in drive. The overly dependent dog is going to become preoccupied with “where is my mom (or dad)?!” and fall out of drive. This is also a function of nerves, which we’ll get to later.

A good amount of pack drive makes for a more trainable dog because the dog’s worst nightmare is displeasing you and getting kicked out of the pack. More independent dogs tend to also be higher in rank drive. The dog figures we’re all here to please him, rather than the other way around.

There are actually a number of other drives that all dogs have in common. We’ve looked at those drives most crucial to success in work. And those drives that separate the Real GSD from those other dogs. And be aware that drives alone do not a Real GSD make. Good drives are only useful when combined with the right thresholds and strong nerves.

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